Dane 00:00
Joshua, what's happening?
Joshua 00:02
Dane, nice to see. How you doing?
Dane 00:04
I'm good, man. Sorry I'm in a car. Mondays is my store check-in and store drop time, so I just. I'm in between stores over here. This. This works.
Joshua 00:14
All good. All good. Still work. All good for you right now.
Dane 00:17
Yeah, it's good, man. All. All work, obviously.
Dane 00:22
It's. It's weird. So I'm in Boston and Boston. In Boston, it disappears during summer. So everybody goes in. So it's a little slower.
Dane 00:32
You know, I'm learning counter to what I've expected from summer. It's kind of a little slower right now. So anyway, that's where you find me.
Joshua 00:40
Makes sense. And where are you from originally?
Dane 00:42
I grew. I I'm from South Africa. I'm an African sully. I stopped saying I grew up in South Africa because it sounds weird. Like, I'm South Africa. So I've been here for five years. I married an American. I met her at g e. We spent a ton of time in and around Africa.
Joshua 00:44
South African. Yep. Yeah. Okay.
Dane 01:00
So we lived in kenya for a while. We lived in south africa for a little bit. And then she wanted to be closer to family, which was cool. We spent eight years in. In Africa together before that. And so, yeah, we landed in. In fairly really quickly, and then she got a job in Boston. And I then joined g e's corporate headquarters. Which was a Boston. So it all kind of worked out. Had a couple of options to leave since then. But it's. It's nice. I really. I'm so. I'm sorry to. To really go on me. I'm. I'm liking Boston's Vibe. You know, the extremities of summer and winter is cool.
Dane 01:36
And then I get two kids. I get a. I got a six-year-old girl and a one-year-old girl. So the six-year-old is starting kindergarten in September.
Joshua 01:43
Wow. Amazing.
Dane 01:45
Part of the decision making process, you know? So that's what it is.
Joshua 01:47
Yep, yep. I love it. And this is your first entrepreneurial Endeavor here. This is the first plunge you've taken.
Dane 01:54
I mean, yeah, the
Dane 01:57
We're always entrepreneurs back in the days, but, yeah, this is the first business, I would say. That's not just me. So it's super cool.
Joshua 02:07
Yeah. Tell me a little bit about it.
Dane 02:08
Yeah, we piloted the business a year and a half ago. Yeah. In Boston, we. We brought product over from South Africa. So we piloted and we feel like, oh, you know, let's figure out what we need to fix first. And then for my five months ago now was my last day at unfi. I'll tell you how I got there in a second.
Joshua 02:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dane 02:31
But. But I. Five months ago was my last day there, and so I've been five months. Full time, and then we've had product for three months. I just sent out my first quarterly business update to my stakeholders this morning. So it feels now like it feels real now, you know, like it's been through a cycle. So, yes.
Joshua 02:46
It's a real thing now. Yeah. Yeah. You've birthed. You've birthed it into the world. Now it's. Now it's a real thing.
Dane 02:54
Now there's metrics and stuff that kind of needs to go with it.
Joshua 02:56
That's right. That's right. Yep.
Dane 02:58
You know? So it's. No, it's. It's super cool. So. So we were. We're a canner based functional drink. Canna is super novel. Do you know anything about it?
Joshua 03:08
I do, actually. Funny enough, I spent some. I spent. I spent some time in. In Kenya and Ethiopia and Tanzania doing. Yeah.
Dane 03:09
Yeah. Okay. Dude.
Joshua 03:16
Various number of community service trips. I was very deep involved with an NGO based out of Canada that we did a bunch of. Bunch of trips out there. And then we were involved in a few different organizations out there and then was recently in kilman went, went to Clon kilmanjaro a couple years back with my family. So spend some time there, bumped around to Rwanda and uganda, did the gorilla trek. So I've spent, I've spent my, my fair share in sub-Saharan Africa and then my mom's actually was born in Morocco. So from North Africa, so spent some time out there, too. Funny enough, within all of that, I've yet to go visit South Africa.
Dane 03:39
Yes. Yes. Okay.
Joshua 03:52
And all that.
Dane 03:54
Very different. But you've gotten to, like, having now perspective of living in and around Africa. I only left South Africa for the first time in my 20s.
Dane 04:02
And so you've gotten real Africa from after just kind of not real Africa. Right. It's specific. Well, maraca is also different.
Joshua 04:05
Right. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Dane 04:10
But I've lived in. Yeah, I lived in Nairobi for a while. So in the same spots that you gave, the gorilla tricks and whatnot.
Joshua 04:16
Yep, yep. So I heard about it from, from that, which is so interesting when I was looking, I was like, oh, interesting. And it makes so much sense. And I'm surprised I've never seen this done before.
Dane 04:17
So kind of. From that. Yeah. Should it has. It has the efficacy as an alcohol alternative that none of the other stuff that's on the market has. It's like. Okay, obviously THC lived away, and so there's efficacy there. But all these other drinks that are blowing up from an ashwaganda and all of that standpoint, like, they don't do. And I'm like, yo, this has got real effect.
Joshua 04:31
Wow. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Dane 04:46
Now it so happens that now the non-out movement is happening. We. I came across this ingredient in 2018 for the first time. My best friend's dad was dying of terminal cancer.
Dane 04:58
And this is in Cape Town. He's my business partner. And a good friend of ours is like a natural healer. And we've known him forever brought over canna in tea bag form. And our friends, father's name is Keith. Keith is like, look, I don't want to take any CBD anymore. I'm just. I'm done. Like, he's very depressed, Etc. And he had the tea and he loved it. He was like, oh, this feels great. I feel really good. Like, get me more of this. And we were like, oh, we're 35 years old. We never heard about this. Never come across it. What's going on? Back in 2018? Then we started like, okay, do we get it into a beer? What do we do with it?
Dane 05:37
And then the non-alk movement started, like, what, 21 or so? Right. So, like, a little bit after that. But at, at the point when I was exiting GE site, I went to ge corporate. We, then six days later heard that I was brought on to help spin the company. And so we fund the company, all that corporate finance, nice cool stuff. And then I was like, well, what am I doing next? I don't really want to go back into GE after 13 years. I'm kind of G thing is done. And then I was like, okay, like, let's see if we could pick the kind of thing up and make it a thing. And that month I found a liquid. So I found a South African company that started being public and say, hey, we have this drink called up the CEO and was like, where are you? And he's like, man, I just, this is my first month of actual operation. I'm nowhere. But if you want to be involved. And I said, okay, well, park that. I don't want to be involved in South Africa. Give me all the rights to the u. S. And I want to do this in the u. S. And I want to do it independently, and I just want you kind of on the side, maybe help with supply chain and help with, like, new product Innovation and that type of stuff. But this is what I want to do. At the time. So then when we put that piloted, right, we piloted, we imported product, we, we started selling. We all, you know, how do people react to this, Etc. Got a bunch of learnings. My boss at g e became the CFO of unify. And so he called me and he's like, man, look, I need help. This thing is a turnaround. Please join. So I was his first ayah into unfi to, like, turn the company around. And I did that for 18 months and basically got to a stage where, and looking at the non out Market and looking at all these brands that over the last couple of years, just, like, exploded. I walked into his office. I said, look, I can't sit on this anymore. I have to go and do this. I have to go and give it a shot. And so, you know, that's the UNFI connection. And immediately he was like, okay. How do we get you into the distribution centers? And I was like, well, that's the money now that maybe go figure that one out. Right. But, yeah, so, like a very natural organic origin that now is kind of, I've now learned grocery a little bit and learned, like, distributive different routes to market with it. And then through the learnings, we totally rebranded. So we're now very much an African brand. So you look at our product and it's very much Africa food. There's nothing in Africa. There's nothing in the US that on CPG that's African.
Joshua 07:47
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Nice.
Dane 08:01
And as you, you've now lived in it, right? So you understand the coolness that's there.
Joshua 08:02
Right. For sure.
Dane 08:07
That's home for us that we're trying to bring through. So we're going to merge these cultures, and then we're bringing this, you know, ancient Wellness and ritual of, of natural ingredients of tanner now into modern social drinking, like very simple to talk about.
Joshua 08:20
Love it. Yep. Yep.
Dane 08:23
But obviously execution is a very different story.
Dane 08:27
My team. So you heard about the guy, whose dad passed away. So he's an excellent African surfer. He's all about branding and marketing. So he runs his own digital advertising agency. He moved to Nova Scotia, married a Canadian. Look, he's like, he's a black snowman. Sort of like this old, you know, I don't know if you saw the Farel Williams is thing with Louis Vuitton, like black surfing is kind of having a very short moment, but he is, like, loving it. So.
Dane 08:55
But point being, he's got the digital advertising and marketing capability. And then I tapped one of my XGE very good friends who left GE and went to a b in dev to run their Beyond beer Venture unit.
Dane 09:10
So I tapped him to be the chief operating officer. So those guys are not full-time yet. You know, with three months in, they're not full-time yet. I'm full time. You know, they'll come in when we hit the milestones and whatnot.
Dane 09:22
But that's the team. That's the core team. We've got advisors. I'll share them with you profile wise. It's, it's go to market. It's a b in dev supply chain guys.
Dane 09:33
It's regulatory guys. And there's. And then there's kind of some legal expertise that's kind of, you know, basically strategic advisors to supplement the skills we don't have.
Joshua 09:39
Cool. Sure. Makes sense. And are you, are you, have you fundraised as a self-funded are you actively raising?
Dane 09:50
Actively raising. So we've put in, we've put in between ourselves and our first chick, we put in 100k and they, and, you know, half of that has been kind of marketing the other half as being like, okay, like, what do we need to do here in terms of product positioning and whatnot?
Dane 10:08
We've got a very strong strategic discussion going on with it. I can mention the name because. Because often can I mention their name? There's 150 year old beer producer and co packer in the northeastern sarona called sarinak brewing there in utica, new york. They are agreeing to basically fund working capital through the next 18 months, which is half the race. Right. And so they're brought in for that, but it's not liquidity, as you know.
Joshua 10:27
Yep. Great. Yeah. Great.
Dane 10:39
And so then on the liquidity side, we've got, like, another couple hundred K committed that we're getting checks in coming in slowly. And then we kind of talking half a million of. We're trying to raise a million and a half overall for all of these things.
Dane 10:53
Right parking half a million for, like, something more strategic that can kind of come rounds and have this, like the industry expertise that we need and whatnot. So I don't know what to do with that yet, man. Like, it's not. I'm not, I'm not confident that, like, we need VC money. And really, that's VC money. Right. I'm a confident we need VC money. I think it would be over dilutive. And, you know, we're still sort of standing up Revenue streams and whatnot. And so whether we move on that or not, I'm actively speaking to about four VCs and getting them super warmed up and Keen. You know? And then I'd rather have options. You know? And then from a distribution perspective, we were lucky out the gate. We got a distributor in SoCal. So those guys, they've dropped us in 100 and, you know, I would imagine 150 stores now as of the end of 200 was 105 stores, 106 stores. And so that was a nice early win after gate to kind of start getting distribution. And, yeah, I mean, what else can I tell you? We've not necessarily put much money into advertising, marketing, Etc. Just because we haven't had money.
Joshua 12:07
Yeah. Makes sense.
Dane 12:07
So that's kind of the that we're in. But now, you know, to, to make sure we don't get kicked off these shelves that we're now on, like, we need to now drive rates of sale to all of those things. Right.
Dane 12:18
So that's where you find me, man.
Joshua 12:20
Great. Love it. Thanks for the, the overview. Now, I'd love to, I'd love to learn a little bit more. I ask a few different questions and then ultimately what I want to, what I'm trying to suss out here is if I think you'd be a good fit for the, this incubator that Mark Granpola's that we're launching with Mark Granpola. Have you connected with Mark before? Do you know, Mark, what's, what's the back for that?
Dane 12:39
No. So, so my sort of, I don't know. So the backstory is Dan block, who you probably know.
Joshua 12:44
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very well.
Dane 12:45
Right? Yeah. So, so Dan and I connected. So one of Dane was in school here. I'm actually in Dane's neighborhood now. One of the people that he raced high school with was at UNFI with me. She introduced us. So we've had a couple of connections.
Joshua 12:59
Gotcha. Cool.
Dane 13:01
And so I, I think, again, I don't know because you'll email just hit my, my inbox last week. I was like, oh, okay, this must be it. So I think the Dane probably kind of threw my name towards Mark.
Dane 13:10
After having a view of, you know, profile where we were at and that sort of thing. So I've not, I've not met Mark.
Joshua 13:15
Cool. Okay, sweet. And did you watch the, the master class video that Mark recorded on the shift from founder to CEO? Have you watched that or. No.
Dane 13:26
I did. I watched it when you, when we started emailing.
Dane 13:30
Yeah. I mean, look, when I looked at that, I was, you know, and I'm living this day today, right? Like, I'm like, I can so much.
Joshua 13:39
Cool. So, yeah, so I'm, I'm curious from your perspective of, like, you know, what, what, what resonated with you in that or what led you towards filling out the application and, and booking this call.
Dane 13:51
So, I mean, I think number one is, you know, both, both Dan and Mark. Are operators. Right. And any, any. Person with advice that has not kind of been in this Arena and there are many, and I've got access to people that have done it from a corporate standpoint, but somebody that's built something from the ground up.
Dane 14:12
That, for me, is, like, powerful. So that, I think association and kind of connection with somebody that has lived through my growth stage is primarily number one.
Dane 14:23
You know, number two, I think Mark was talking about a few things around. Like, I guess how to think about teams and how to think about what you're focused on. And I think that the Strategic aspect of what I'm doing, I, I feel very clunky right now. And so when he talks about, yo, like locking into what is the highest return for your time is one of the things that, like, really resonates with me, because I think, you know, what I'm finding is it's kind of like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to everything. And I'm like, when I step back and write a business update after three months, I'm like, I should be saying no to, like, 30 of the stuff that I'm saying yes to. And how do I get to that, that ruthless prioritization mindset?
Dane 15:04
So, you know, that's a big thing, you know? And then I think, you know, I know what I'm good at. Like, I think I'm good at fitting into different rooms and, like, operating in different spaces comfortably. Whether I kind of quote unquote belonged or grew up in those or not, like, I could figure out how to maneuver in those rooms. But then, like, how to optimize the value that I give and get from all of these relationships. And I think somebody to, like, help things through. Okay. Here's the game board on who you're talking to.
Dane 15:35
Like sequencing, when to turn on and. And ask for things and not ask for things and give things. And, like, build trust with partners over time. Like, that's what I'd love coaching on and, like, guys like, you know, guys like Mark have done it. Yeah. I say those are the three elements that really appeal to me outside of what I cleaned. And again, I looked at this thing two weeks ago, so I can't point you to exactly there.
Joshua 15:56
Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. No, that's, that, that's spot on. It makes a ton of sense. So thanks for sharing that. Listen, I'll be straight up with you. I think you are an exact perfect fit for what Mark is building out, and I'll kind of run through all the details of what that is. Candidly, you are a bit earlier stage than where Mark typically will work with people. But I can tell just from our conversation and from your experience that, like, you will more than be able to hang in the room and provide value and to be at a stage where Mark can provide tremendous value because, again, of your experience and how you're thinking about things and your level of awareness. So, yeah, I'd love to kind of run you through what is building right now so that you can have kind of the full details and see if it makes sense. Does that sound good?
Dane 16:39
That's perfect.
Joshua 16:40
Cool. Great. And just, yeah, for context, exactly like you said, there's so much value in having someone who's been through it, the trajectory that you're going through. And Mark is such an interesting kind of point of view because not only has he been through it from the operator standpoint of building from the garage, right, zico, building all the way up, scaling it, selling it to coke for 200 mil. But then also from now the seat on the bus of institutional capital, right, where he's now handing out the checks and he evaluates, you know, thousands of founders every single year and knows what those qualities are, what those principles are, what those patterns are of the founders who are actually getting the 20 to 50 million dollar checks to go to that next stage for that acquisition. And so, so he's got this really interesting POV and then obviously we built, when he bought Zico back from coke and now is building it back a second time. Right. So it's totally his lane that he lives in. And this is why he started this, what he's calling the backable CEO.
Joshua 17:38
Because he's seen it so many times. And at this point in his career, he really, you know, he really wants to be able to give back to these Founders in this way and set them up for Success because it's like, it's so much. Yes, it's an art, but it's also so much of a science of these things of, like, of, of how do you measure your RO time, right, your ROT, your return on time? How do you understand how to say no? What to say no to and, and how to practically do that, how to create time back for yourself. How do you paint that strategic vision for yourself and for your business with where you're going in three to five years? What are those core values that drive those things? How do you communicate that to a team and set that Vision? How do you communicate that to prospective investors and actual investors? And so he's really built this, this whole kind of toolkit. And as we call, like, this operating system. That we call our backable CEO operating system, there's really focused on helping people make this transition from what we call, like, the scrappy founder, the do-it-all say yes to everything that's in the weeds, that's doing everything, which is important to have. But ultimately is this kind of chicken and the ag game where that Scrappy founder needs to evolve to becoming a true strategic CEO in order to become backable to build the team to receive, to raise the capital that you need to raise and to execute the way that you need to execute in order to ultimately reach your goals and, and build a successful brand that you, that you want to build. And so that's really what he's built this backable CEO incubator is, is really designed for that transition at its core because he's helped so many people through it. Both informally is just like an advisor or through the boards that he sits on working with Founders. And formally in this kind of more recent, I would say year, year and a half of, like, actively coaching people through this. And so what, what, and just for context, what I've, I've come on board to help him with is like, is streamlining all of that is systemizing all of that so that he can bring this to more Founders. And so what, what we're getting ready to launch next month is called the backable CEO. And it's a 90-day container. It's a 90 day incubator is kind of what we call it that is really designed to be like, and I'll send you all this, by the way. So, like, because I know you're in the car. You guys see you taking notes as well.
Dane 19:35
Got it. And I'm. Yeah.
Joshua 19:54
But perfect. I'll send, I'll send this to you all so that you can go back and look through. There's a website. I won't share my screen because I know I'm on a phone, so it'll be small, but I'll just talk you through it, and then you can go back through what the screen that I'm, I'm on right now. So it's, again, it's, it's really like, it's kind of less of, like, it's not an online course. It's not like a forum. It's not a group cohort. It's, it's, it's, it's what we like to call, like, a learning lab. And so it's really designed 90 days for complete transformation to take you through that trajectory. And it's, it's really Mark working with you one-on-one directly. And then with a suite of tools that you get access to and then with a group cohort that you, you're able to learn with that allow you to paint that picture. And so basically, the way it looks like is before you get started, there's this kind of deep onboarding assessment that we have everyone do. And, and everything that every action that you take through this kind of pipes through your own login and your own dashboard that we have to, to literally build out your, your backable CEO operating system. And so, like every assessment you fill out, every, every exercise you do kind of pipes into the central place that becomes a really valuable toolkit for you operating moving forward. And so you do this onboarding assessment. You have an hour deep dive strategy session with Mark that's one-on-one where he'll help you really refine and, and, and clarify what your targets are, not only for the next 90 days within this program, but beyond that for the rest of the, for the next six months, for the next year, what that looks like, what, what KPIs to clearly identify what a successful ROI would look like for you. And then from that, you have direct access that opens up to Mark through WhatsApp. So WhatsApp is the main channel we use. So you have WhatsApp back and forth with mark, and he'll be there on, on WhatsApp with you back and forth. And, and this all happens before the 12 week start sometime in August, TBD on what that actual date is. We're going to start the 12 week container. We're going to have up to 10 Max, 10 other Founders like yourself, people who are super hungry, who are very complimentary, you know, verticals of mostly a lot of consumer, but not just consumer. We have some other Founders and CEOs of other types of businesses, but mostly it's a consumer and, and mostly CPG focus because of Mark's experience. But throughout the 12 weeks every week, there's a live session. And the live session is 90 minutes with Mark and this cohort of people of founders that are navigating similar, similar things. And each session combines teaching, discussion, coaching and application. So every week there's one concept, one tool and one shift that you make. And so it's focused specifically to be really actionable for all these busy Founders who are in the weeds doing everything. So obviously it's not going to be like tons and tons and tons of content and things that you're going to now feel you're falling behind. And it's another thing to deal with. It's laser focused to be one concept, one tool, one action to take one shift. And so throughout those 12 weeks, that's what's happening every week. There's bi-weekly coaching. So every other week you're on a 30 minute coaching call with Mark for your practical implementation, and he'll hop on calls with you more as needed. But you also have that WhatsApp channel back and forth. And so that's how the main thing is delivered within those three months so that you are like, it's a 12 week Sprint where you are like, you are held in that container. And at the end, you do another deep dive with mark so that you can measure the ROI on what is actually being delivered. And, and so you're kind of supported at each one of these angles. And the cool part is that, Mark, obviously, is the investor that he is and the business operator that he is, is that he's so focused on Roi that he puts a 5x Roi guarantee on this as well. So he will guarantee that you will go through and you Define what those Roi actually looks like and the first strategy session. And that throughout those 12 weeks, if you don't see a 5x return on investment, because this is an investment and Mark treats it like one, if you don't see that, then he'll keep working with you until you do or refund you, whatever your choice is. Because at this point in his career, he really wants to make sure that this is an investment that you see the return on. And that's how confident he is that this is going to be the case. So that's kind of the whole trajectory and what it actually looks like. You get Mark in your corner working with you on your business and on your helping you pave your, create your leadership strategy and your vision and your backable, your CEO operating system for your internal operating system. And, and it's over the course of that, those 12 weeks. So I'm going to pause there because I know it just kind of threw a lot your way.
Dane 23:40
Okay. Yep. Yeah. We are. And the one of the things I noted was that we are establishing Targets apis before we start, and then we're coming back to that at the end of the 90 days, and we kind of refreshing return against those.
Dane 24:30
Okay. Yeah. Okay, I got it. I think I got it.
Dane 24:34
Are you eat these with Mark 90 minutes a week with a cohort of people that will kind of have access to from a networking perspective?
Joshua 24:39
Yep. Exactly. Yep.
Joshua 24:43
Yeah. And the cool part, too, is there's always, like, you know, we've got a range so far of people who are confirmed and in. And it's an intimate group. So it's like, you know, relationships are great and get built very quickly with this. And then there's always someone that's like, there's always someone that's like a stage ahead of you, and usually someone that's like a stage earlier than you. And so you're able to, like, share and give and receive, and it creates this amazing, amazing environment that ends up being some, oftentimes the biggest highlight and the biggest value that people get on top of everything else.
Dane 24:43
Very cool. You said it's one of the stages that we've been going in some form of what we're doing here for the last year and a half. What is, what does that mean? Is it like just it was informally happening for a year and a half or testing the platform? Like, what does that mean?
Joshua 25:29
Yeah. So good question. So Mark has been doing this his whole career. I would say in the last two, three, in the last three years, as he's been writing, so last October, almost a year ago, he released his book called an entrepreneur's guide to Freedom, where he started talking more about these, you know, and, and more about these Concepts and these ideas and these patterns that he observed within himself that helped him grow and make these shifts and that he works with other Founders. And so that was like, that kind of him spearheaded of like, all right, he was like, all right, I want to formally do more of this. So that was, you know, about two years ago since two to three years ago that he's been working on this and he's been really focused towards this. And so he's been doing coaching and mentorship. I mean, his whole career, really, but two to three years ago, he started doing more of that.
Joshua 26:14
To really build out and test some of these exercises that he did on himself to test and build on other people. So for the last several years, he's been really coaching in a professional way where he, like, people have been paying him to coach him in advisory role within the last year, a year ago from now, we did our kind of like first beta cohort of this exact incubator. And we got 100 across the board of 10 out of 10, five stars. Everybody hit their Roi goals. Like, it was tremendous. And since then, we've been really ramping up to make it even better on the back end delivery already starting from that Baseline. And so this is going to be the first cohort we're launching where it's like the full thing, fully live. Like, we've tested these things before, but now we're, we're doing it in this, in this next level where we're really on the back end, too, of some of the AI. It's everything is AI powered assessments and tools. And so, like, that's the real big launch that we're doing this time around.
Dane 27:11
One, one last question for me.
Dane 27:14
You mentioned, this is just more of a confirmation. I'm assuming that 10, the nine other founders are us based and they're geographic spread concentration, anything like that.
Joshua 27:17
Yeah. Yes. All over west coast to east coast. We do have. One other person that might be joining from the Middle East, so it will be global as well. His, his brand is based. He's a global brand, but mostly, I would say everybody else is us. I'm just thinking off top of my head and probably majority Eastern east coast base and then a couple West Coast based for seats that we have confirmed so far.
Dane 27:37
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Got it. Okay.
Dane 27:58
Very cool. You'd mentioned, like, refund. What, what do we paying and buying into the program for?
Joshua 28:04
Definitely. So the full investment for the 12 weeks, the three month container that you're in, which is the, all the one-on-one time you get with Mark, the, the tools that you get to keep for yourself, the cohort, all that. It's a 12K investment that you have for that whole process, and we break it up, of course, too, for cash flow into three payments of 4K. So that gets you access to mark, that gets you, you know, all the tools and everything that you get to keep and the way that we do it as well is, you know, we do the first payment to kind of secure and hold the, the spot because we will, you know, fill out those spots and cap it off. And then 30 days after the start date is when the second payment runs and 30 days after that, the third payment runs. So that's a 12K ticket price. So the 5x Roi on that is, you know, we're looking at 66, 60k minimum in your time back in, in Enterprise Value created and, and, you know, funds raised for people that are fundraising. Right. So that's kind of what we're tracking against is, is a minimum of 60k trackable Roi on that.
Joshua 29:03
Yeah. What are your thoughts?
Dane 29:04
Very cool. And you've hit deposits and then you've plus 30 plus 30 from a timing standpoint. It's pretty clear.
Joshua 29:10
Correct. Correct.
Dane 29:12
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's interesting. Again, I've not, I've not. So I've done. I mean, you, you maybe you did corporate. Maybe you didn't. We didn't speak about your background, but I've done, you know, the corporate version of, like, these coaching things and whatnot, but it's not, it's not like what we, what I'm doing now.
Dane 29:30
And so I 100 am Keen because it's just, I, I know the sort of. Hard hands on coaching works.
Dane 29:40
And so I'm just going to put that up against the 12K to say, look, if I'm getting a return and, you know, whatever I need to think a little bit about what my kind of measurable KPA kpis would be, but the, but the thesis sounds very attractive. I mean, again, it's access, it's network.
Joshua 29:44
Right. Right. Yeah.
Dane 29:57
It's. And again, it's so. Yeah, sure. There's bookends to the program, but, like, you know, the relationships don't necessarily applicants because that's life.
Joshua 30:06
Totally, totally. And, and that's kind of, and that's kind of Mark's goal within all this as well, is like, you know, candidly, and this isn't, this is a program that's his personally and not affiliated technically with ground force Capital. His private Equity firm, and they focus on a bit later, later stage stuff as well. But his whole thing is like, he views this as a pipeline and every relationship is like, because if, if he knows that the founder, if he's helping build these Founders with a skill set, then, like, they become instantly way more backable and attractive for him from an investment standpoint once they hit certain metrics. And so, so just, you know, be between you and I, that's why, that's why he's building this, is because he wants to have, like, more of, like, an incubator pipeline to get people ready to the point where they're ready for the, you're ready for the 20 to 50 million dollar check to, like, go scale mode.
Dane 30:07
So, yeah, I get it. Yep.
Joshua 30:51
Right. And, and so, yeah, the, the, the relationships, the relationships build on. And there's also opportunities to work with Mark beyond that. TBD on what that looks like. But, but it is, it's a beautiful opportunity.
Dane 31:02
You said so. Wait, you said launch August. Is that what you said?
Joshua 31:05
Correct. Yep. Yep. It's going to be launching in August. It might be launch as late as 91 is September 1st, sometime in August. We're gonna have clarity around that in this next week as we're just kind of shaping up confirming some of the, some, some more of the seats as we're getting closer to capacity now.
Dane 31:19
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, cool.
Dane 31:24
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm interested for sure, no doubt. And I. And I kind of get the. I don't think he get the thesis and, like, from Ark standpoints, I think it's if I was doing this, I think people that bet on themselves and their businesses enough to invest in something a little quicker to give them that extra boost. And, and, you know, none of it's guaranteed, but it makes, it makes certain parts of it a little bit more sure.
Joshua 31:25
Great. Yeah. Yes, definitely.
Dane 31:50
In a very uncertain world for a CEO, so. Okay, I got it, man.
Joshua 31:52
Yeah. Great. I love it. And what I'd love to do, given it seems like you are, you are really interested in this. I'd love to set you up for quick chat with mark if you're cool with that. So you can make the connection. You'll get a sense of his Vibe and he can help answer some questions as well. And part of what you guys can even do on that call, but he can help with, and it's part of the process as well as, like, to really think through clearly.
Joshua 32:14
Like, how will you measure these kpis so that you're clear that you're going to get that Roi. So that's something you guys can talk about on a call as well. But we'll be, you know, part of a longer conversation for some of your goals that we get through the onboarding intake. But, but I'd love to set you up for a call with him so you can kind of go back and forth and then you can make, you know, make a decision and we can hopefully get your spot secured and get you in the program.
Dane 32:36
What, what are we booking at? Right now? Days wise.
Joshua 32:40
I'm going to send, set you up on an email with his EA who will share a few different options. And then, yeah, I'll let you guys schedule from there and I'll just catch up with it on the other. Catch up with you guys on the other side of that.
Dane 32:56
So ashan will exchange some, some stories about East Africa life at the dub stage in the future.
Joshua 33:00
Yeah. For sure. Yes. Hopefully, hopefully over one of your beverages. I would love to.
Dane 33:07
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Dane 33:08
All right, Josh.
Joshua 33:09
All right, man. So great. I'll send you an email with follow up. Take care, brother. Thanks so much.
Dane 33:09
Let me go, man. Cheers. They could easily.